How to create new dynamic posters for Sims 4

[_TANK_]

Tools you will need:

Dynamic Poster (will be used as an asset)

Sims 4 Studio

Any photo editor (or https://www.photopea.com/)

 

1. First, download Dynamic Poster from the link above, which is a tool/asset to create your dynamic posters from. Copy the file inside and paste it in the Sims 4 Studio mod directory (typically its in C:\Documents\Sims 4 Studio\Mods).

 

2. Open Sims 4 Studio, click on the Standalone Recolor choice, under the Object button.

 

 

3. In the next page, select Custom from the Content drop-down, click on the Dynamic Poster that shows up, and click Next.

 

 

4. Sims 4 Studio asks to give a name to your new package. Save the file in the Sims 4 mods directory, so it loads up the next time you run the game.

 

5. Click on the Studio tab, in Sims 4 Studio, then go to Texture. There you will find 25 textures (diffuses) where you can put your pictures.

 

6. To create/edit the pictures, click on any of the diffuses, click on Export and save the file as PNG somewhere (keep the original file you exported, as a template, in case you need to edit more textures).

 

 

7. Open the exported file with your photo editor, change the image inside the borders, save it under a different name, go back to Sims 4 Studio, click Import and choose the new PNG file. To help the game render the images faster, you might convert the new PNG files into DDS, using any PNGtoDDS online converter.

 

8. Repeat step 7 for all of the 25 textures in your package. If you dont have 25 textures to fill in the textures, you can cheat ?, the game wont mind. Say you only have 10 pictures, for 10 diffuses. Put the first image you chose for the first diffuse, on 11th diffuse. Put the second texture on 12th diffuse, and so on.

 

9. You can add as many swatches as you need, the textures will auto-copy in the new swatch, then all you have to do is change them.

 

10. Go back to your Sims 4 Studio mod directory where you copied the original dynamic painting (from step 1). Open the original file using Sims 4 Studio (In Windows, i associated .package files to be opened with Sims 4 Studio).

 

11. In the new Sims 4 Studio instance, go to the Warehouse, and on the left side, select all the tuning files (Statistic Tuning, Sim Data, Object State Tuning, Interaction Tuning, Action Tuning and Object Tuning), the Strings Tables and the two DST images with the back and next icons, then click on the Batch Export and save them in some new folder.

 

 

12. Close this Sims 4 Studio instance, and go to the Sims 4 Studio, where your new package is open.

 

13. In Warehouse, click on the Batch Import button, select all the files from the directory you exported before, and click Open. This process will import all the tuning files into your new package, and make it functional in game, to act as a Dynamic Poster. Do not delete the previously export tuning files, in case you want to create new Dynamic Poster objects.

 

10. Save the package file, run the game, go into build buy mode, find your package and put it on a wall. Thats it. Enjoy your work  (PS. When searching for your poster, remember that the object name in the build buy mode, will be the name of the first swatch, in your package)

 

PS. In order for this to work properly, make sure not to delete any DDS Image from the Warehouse, otherwise you will see some weird images in game.

 

If you use Photoshop or https://www.photopea.com/, find below a ready made PSD file that can serve you as a template to create your new images

 

Poster_Object_Empty.psd

Edited September 17, 2023 by _TANK_

[Astercholik]

Hello TANK, when I want to open a link from patreon to a file something like this pops up:

FireFox:

when I click "SAVE" the file saves without an extension and S4S does not see it.

Chrome:

Edited September 15, 2023 by Astercholik

[_TANK_]

53 minutes ago, Astercholik said:

Hello TANK, when I want to open a link from patreon to a file something like this pops up:

FireFox:

when I click "SAVE" the file saves without an extension and S4S does not see it.

Chrome:

 

Hi Astercholik,

 

Please retry now, i reattached the file in the original post on Patreon.

 

I tested it now, it seems working

 

Tank

[Astercholik]

4 minutes ago, _TANK_ said:

 

Hi Astercholik,

 

Please retry now, i reattached the file in the original post on Patreon.

 

I tested it now, it seems working

 

Tank

Thanks, now it works as it should

As something, I have already translated all your modifications into Polish
Videos for IMT also

[_TANK_]

4 minutes ago, Astercholik said:

Thanks, now it works as it should

As something, I have already translated all your modifications into Polish
Videos for IMT also

 

Thank you, i have noticed ? i credited you in the IMT main post ?

[wild_guy]

And what if I want to make this using a different painting object as a base?

[_TANK_]

1 hour ago, wild_guy said:

And what if I want to make this using a different painting object as a base?

 

you would need to create new diffuses in the different base painting, the tuning files will work with any painting object

 

1. New diffuses are created in the model of the object.

 

 

2. After you click Edit Items, the following window will show up. Depending on the object, some have HighDetail AccessLevel set to Delayed, while the MediumDetail Lod is set to Public. If thats the case, you will need to repeat steps 3-10 for one of the 3 Model LODs as well (the right Model LOD looks like the Model, when you go into the 3D Preview, with the black and white squares).

 

For now, find the one that says Public and click on Meshes

 

 

3. The next window comes up. Click on the Phong (there might be more than one Phong, depending on the object), on the left column, and on the Material section on the right side, click Edit Items where it says Entries.

 

 

4. In the next windows, by default there are 2 VariantId Default, which you can delete. Select the first set1-materialName (the one with stateID Default) and click on Copy.

 

 

5. This new instance of set1-materialName will have the same attributes as the original one, so you will need to change the Material Resource Key Instance, the MaterialName, the stateId, and the image instance, which is found in Material -> Edit Items...

 

 

6. To create the Material Resource Key Instance, the MaterialName, the stateId, and the image instance, use the Hash Generator from Sims 4 Studio.

 

 

7. In the Text input, type anything you want this new stage to be called (each materialName has 2 stages by default, Default and Burnt, here we are creating new stages). I called mine TANK:diffuse1, TANK:diffuse2, etc.

 

8. Copy and paste the FNV32 hash in the StateId and MaterialName fields, and the generated FNV64 hash in the Material Resource Key Instance field. After that click on Material -> Items -> Edit Items ...

 

 

9. The following window comes up, where you need to put the FNV64 hashed key in the DiffuseMap Value Key Instance.

 

 

10. Close all windows by click Save on each of them. Do not close the file yet.

 

11. Click on one of the DST images and click Duplicate. A new small window comes up. Put the copied FNV64 hash in the Instance field of the Add Resource... window. This will connect the new added DST image with the new StateId DiffuseMap we created before.

 

 

12. Finally, save the file, close and reopen it.

 

 

And thats it. For only 1 diffuse.

 

Lastly, you need to change the state name on those object state tuning in the file, with whatever you named the diffuse in the Hash Generator windows

 

When game runs, it will automatically hash this name and find the material state that corresponds to it.

 

 

Hopefully this helps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by _TANK_

[wild_guy]

35 minutes ago, _TANK_ said:

the tuning files will work with any painting object

That's what I meant, this means this is not a universal thing for all painting objects.

I'm curious, is the principle of this tunings based on such in-game objects like Spooky Stuff paintings which can change their textures?

Edited September 15, 2023 by wild_guy

[wild_guy]

1 hour ago, _TANK_ said:

Hopefully this helps.

Yes, it's definitelly more clear now, thank you! 

[_TANK_]

39 minutes ago, wild_guy said:

That's what I meant, this means this is not a universal thing for all painting objects.

I'm curious, is the principle of this tunings based on such in-game objects like Spooky Stuff paintings which can change their textures?

 

Nope, its not universal, there is a some work to go through if one wants to do a different base painting, but the tuning is pretty much universal, as long as the new painting has 25 diffuses. Otherwise the tuning needs some tweaking, like remove or add some of the states.

 

Honestly, im not sure about the Spooky Stuff paintings and how they work, i havent checked those objects, but i guess if they change the texture in game, i believe there would be some similarities in the painting yes.

[_TANK_]

57 minutes ago, wild_guy said:

I'm curious, is the principle of this tunings based on such in-game objects like Spooky Stuff paintings which can change their textures?

 

Nope, just checked the Spooky paintings, they use timed_stage_triggers to change the paintings. I tried that method but for some reason it was throwing an error. So i used a timer instead. But the idea is pretty much the same.

[Astercholik]

Hello, I noticed a small problem, if someone does not put the base file in the Mods folder in TS4 then when clicking on the image there are no 2 icons in it and the text for the automatic option is missing:

I managed to fix this problem by creating a Fix for all subsequent CCs.


In addition, I have a question about how to change the speed of automatically displayed photos because now it is (1 hour in the sims), and I would like to have one change every 5 minutes for me (from the game)
and others every 12h (from the game)

================================================
OLD MSG

I performed everything as in the guide
I copied the base to Mods S4S
I changed the images
I extracted the files from the base and put them into my file
And here is the result:

But when I added the 2 dds files to the file and added the 2 codes to the string tables (responsible for the language) it all came back to normal






FIX to all next file (ONLY IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE BASE FILE IN YOUR MODS FOLDER!!!)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/89369045

Edited September 17, 2023 by Astercholik

[_TANK_]

4 hours ago, Astercholik said:

Hello, I noticed a small problem, if someone does not put the base file in the Mods folder in TS4 then when clicking on the image there are no 2 icons in it and the text for the automatic option is missing:

I managed to fix this problem by creating a Fix for all subsequent CCs.


In addition, I have a question about how to change the speed of automatically displayed photos because now it is (1 hour in the sims), and I would like to have one change every 5 minutes for me (from the game)
and others every 12h (from the game)

================================================
OLD MSG

I performed everything as in the guide
I copied the base to Mods S4S
I changed the images
I extracted the files from the base and put them into my file
And here is the result:

But when I added the 2 dds files to the file and added the 2 codes to the string tables (responsible for the language) it all came back to normal






FIX to all next file (ONLY IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE BASE FILE IN YOUR MODS FOLDER)

DynamicPoster (FIX-Miss Files) by Astercholik.package 3.06 kB · 0 downloads
 

 

Yes, you are right, i forgot to mention, you have to extract the Strings and the two DST images from the original file, and import them in the new package, like you did with the tuning files.

 

You can change the time in the Commodity Timer tuning (both the statistic tuning and the Sim Data), the TANK:customDynamicPainting_Values_Timer_Active object state tuning and the TANK:loot_customDynamicPainting_ResetTimer like in the screenshots below. The actual number 60 is the value that needs changing. It game this acts as countdown, from 60 to 0. Once it reaches 0, the picture changes, a timed_state_triggers triggers the timer to reset and it make it go back to 60.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by _TANK_

[_TANK_]

4 hours ago, Astercholik said:

Hello, I noticed a small problem, if someone does not put the base file in the Mods folder in TS4 then when clicking on the image there are no 2 icons in it and the text for the automatic option is missing:

I managed to fix this problem by creating a Fix for all subsequent CCs.


In addition, I have a question about how to change the speed of automatically displayed photos because now it is (1 hour in the sims), and I would like to have one change every 5 minutes for me (from the game)
and others every 12h (from the game)

================================================
OLD MSG

I performed everything as in the guide
I copied the base to Mods S4S
I changed the images
I extracted the files from the base and put them into my file
And here is the result:

But when I added the 2 dds files to the file and added the 2 codes to the string tables (responsible for the language) it all came back to normal






FIX to all next file (ONLY IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE BASE FILE IN YOUR MODS FOLDER)

DynamicPoster (FIX-Miss Files) by Astercholik.package 3.06 kB · 0 downloads
 

 

Also, to have different paintings run at different times, you need extra tuning files for that, pretty much a new timer with all the dependencies, like a new statistic commodity, a new object state, another TANK:loot_customDynamicPainting_ResetTimer, then connect all these tuning files with each other, etc.

[Astercholik]

Ok, then I'll give it to myself.

Exactly TANK, you can not copy Language String Tables, because in them is encoded code with the description and name of the item and when creating a new one, this code changes so someone who throws another one in there may have a problem with the name, MY Fix is only for these 2 icons and 2 of these lines and it works, I created 10 CCs on a trial basis, and there is no problem.

Generally I'm getting tired of the second part of the tutorial, I've done everything and when I copy DDS and assign it my code, still the new layer doesn't appear and I'm looking for where I made a mistake

1 I create a new image project (base game)
2 I remove layers I don't want to stay 1.
3. Warehouse - Model - Data - Lods (Edit) - LowDetail Flags - Meshes Edit
4. Phong - Material - Entires - Edit
5. Find Set1 defailt - copy
6. Generate new Hash
7. Change Key Instance, MaterialName, StaleId for New Hash

8. Material Items Edit - DiffuseMap New Hash
9. Save all window back to Warehouse
10. Duplicate DDS change code to new
11. save file restart and back to s4s - texture - not add new texture

Edited September 16, 2023 by Astercholik

[_TANK_]

Before you go try that, i managed to create a function to adjust the speed (1h, 3h, 6h, 12h and 1d)

 

Uploading in a bit

[Astercholik]

1 hour ago, _TANK_ said:

Before you go try that, i managed to create a function to adjust the speed (1h, 3h, 6h, 12h and 1d)

 

Uploading in a bit

Oh great I'm still struggling with the tutorial for creating something of my own, the point is that I wanted to make such a photo frame for my desk which changes images, only I don't know why, as I wrote above, it doesn't want me to create this texture. If you have time please take a peek at the video above

[_TANK_]

27 minutes ago, Astercholik said:

Oh great I'm still struggling with the tutorial for creating something of my own, the point is that I wanted to make such a photo frame for my desk which changes images, only I don't know why, as I wrote above, it doesn't want me to create this texture. If you have time please take a peek at the video above

 

You created the extra texture for the Low quality mesh (0:41s of the video). If you change the mesh to Low quality, in Studio tab, you can see that the extra texture will show up. In order to show up for all the quality meshes, you have to repeat the process for the two extra Model LODs.

 

Some complex objects have one Model and then some extra Model LODs, representing each Mesh detail (High, Medium and Low). In your case, LowDetail was set to Public and that is connected with the Model (the one you tweaked). For the other 2 Mesh details, there are 2 extra Model LODs, that look the same like Model, if you switch to 3d Preview. The other Model LODs are linked with the ShadowDetail.

 

Not sure if this made any sense.

 

There was a way to remove the extra meshes, but i cant remember how I did it, need to check again.

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by _TANK_

[Astercholik]

1 minute ago, _TANK_ said:

 

You created the extra texture for the Low quality mesh. If you change the mesh to Low quality, in Studio tab, you can see that the extra texture will show up. In order to show up for all the quality meshes, you have to repeat the process for the two extra Model LODs.

 

Some complex objects have more than one Model LOD, representing each Mesh detail (High, Medium and Low). There was a way to remove the extra meshes, but i cant remember how I did it, need to check again.

 

Oki, that means everything is great, I just missed 2 additional Models from the file, thanks the most

[_TANK_]

12 minutes ago, Astercholik said:

Oki, that means everything is great, I just missed 2 additional Models from the file, thanks the most

 

Your welcome

[_TANK_]

30 minutes ago, Astercholik said:

Oki, that means everything is great, I just missed 2 additional Models from the file, thanks the most

 

Ok, found how to delete the extra meshes and changing LowDetail to HighDetail. So no need to recreate those instances.

 

First go and export the High Detail mesh from Meshes tab and save it somewhere. Do the same for the Shadow LOD (High).

 

 

Then delete the High Detail Flags and the Medium Detail Flags (also the ShadowHighDetail and ShadowMediumDetail) from the Lods window. Then change the ID for the LowDetail to High Detail, and also for the ShadowLowDetail flag to ShadowHighDetail like in the screenshot. Click save, and save and close the file. Reopen it, and check if the new diffuse is there.

 

 

After you do that, go back to the Meshes tab and import the meshes you exported before. This will replace the low detail meshes from the actual LOD with the High Detail Meshes from the LOD you deleted. Save the file and reopen it.

Edited September 17, 2023 by _TANK_

[Aboloro]

Hello Tank,

 

do you know by any chance how to edit/remove certain pictures from a "Dynamic CC" like your posters for example? I have a CC file that uses the "What's Happening Sign" from City Living displaying different pictures every few minutes and i always wondered how i can see them.

 

Can we take your Dynamic Posters for example, i have it in my mod folder and how can i remove a pic that i don't like?

[_TANK_]

1 hour ago, Aboloro said:

Hello Tank,

 

do you know by any chance how to edit/remove certain pictures from a "Dynamic CC" like your posters for example? I have a CC file that uses the "What's Happening Sign" from City Living displaying different pictures every few minutes and i always wondered how i can see them.

 

Can we take your Dynamic Posters for example, i have it in my mod folder and how can i remove a pic that i don't like?

 

In Dynamic Posters, thats pretty straight forward, you cant. I mean, you are not supposed to delete pictures, otherwise you will see a weird question mark in game, but you can change that pic with another one. Just import a new picture on one of those diffuses (textures) you dont like. Say you want to change the picture of the third diffuse, just select the third diffuse, as in picture, click import, and select the image you want. This will replace the actual image. Then just click save, delete localthumbcache and avatarcache and start the game.

 

 

[Aboloro]

Ah okay.

 

Thank you for your help and time Tank!

[Astercholik]

TANK, since the new base file came out now what should be copied from your file to the new one?
Previously it was 40 files:
1x Action Tuning
3x Interaction Tuning
33x Object State Tuning
1x Object Tuning
1x Sim Data
1x Statistic Tuning

All is 40 Files

And now I see that there will be some more:
1x Action Tuning
8x Interaction Tuning
39x Object State Tuning
1x Object Tuning
2x Sim Data
1x Statistic Tuning
And te new file 1x Pie Menu Category Tuning??

New will be 52 or 53?

and again the link to the file fell, I guess it would be better if you put the link from the patron here

Edited September 17, 2023 by Astercholik